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CULTURAL AND WILD PLANTS
Water lily white (water lily). Legends, myths, symbolism, description, cultivation, methods of application
Directory / Cultivated and wild plants Content
Water lily (water lily), Nymphaea alba. Photos of the plant, basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism
Basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism Sort by: Water lily (Nymphaea) Family: Water lilies (Nymphaeaceae) Origin: Europe, North America, Asia, Africa Area: The white water lily is distributed throughout the world, including in subtropical and temperate zones. Chemical composition: White water lily contains essential oil, dyes, tannins, alkaloids, sugars, organic acids, vitamins and minerals. Economic value: The water lily is used as an ornamental plant for landscaping water bodies and ponds, and also has medicinal properties. The plant is used in cosmetology and food industry (in some countries, water lily roots and leaves are eaten). Legends, myths, symbolism: The water lily, also known as the water lily, has a rich symbolic and cultural history. In different cultures, she was often associated with divinity, beauty, purity and spirituality. In ancient Greek mythology, the water lily was associated with the goddess of love, Aphrodite, who was born from the waves of the sea on a shell that looked like a water lily. In Christian symbolism, the white water lily is often referred to as a symbol of Christ, who is the source of spiritual life and grace. In addition, the white water lily has a special meaning in the culture of Japan. In Japanese culture, it symbolizes purity and spirituality. In Japanese literature and poetry, she is often referred to as a symbol of beauty and harmony.
Water lily (water lily), Nymphaea alba. Description, illustrations of the plant Water lily. Legends, myths, history
The marvelous water lily, or, as it is also called, the water lily (a relative of the famous Egyptian lotus), according to the Greek myth, arose from the body of a lovely nymph who died of love for Hercules, who remained indifferent to her. In ancient Greece, the flower was considered a symbol of beauty and eloquence. Young girls wove garlands from them, decorated their heads and tunics with them; they even wove a wreath of water lilies for the beautiful Helen on the day of her wedding to King Menelaus and decorated the entrance to their bedroom with a wreath. The leaf of the water lily is floating like a raft, outwardly simple, heart-shaped and thick, like a flat cake; there are air cavities inside it, therefore it does not sink. There is several times more air in it in order to hold its own weight, the excess of which is necessary for unforeseen accidents: if, say, a bird or a frog sits down, the sheet must hold them. Once upon a time, there was such a belief: water lilies descend under water at night and turn into beautiful mermaids, and with the advent of the sun, mermaids turn into flowers again. In ancient times, the water lily was even called the mermaid flower. Maybe that's why botanists gave the name to the water lily "Nymphea Candida", which means "white nymph" (nymph - mermaid). In Germany, it was said that once a little mermaid fell in love with a knight, but he did not reciprocate her feelings. From grief, the nymph turned into a water lily. There is a belief that nymphs (mermaids) hide in flowers and on the leaves of water lilies, and at midnight they begin to dance and drag people passing by the lake with them. If someone managed to somehow escape from them, then grief will dry him up later. According to another legend, water lilies are the children of a beautiful countess, carried away into mud by a swamp king. Heartbroken, the Countess went daily to the shore of the swamp. One day she saw a wonderful white flower, the petals of which resembled the complexion of her daughter, and the stamens - her golden hair.
There are also legends that say that each water lily has its own elf friend (little man), who is born together with the flower, and dies together. Corollas of flowers serve the elves as both a home and a bell. During the day, the elves sleep in the depths of the flower, and at night they swing the pestle and call, calling their brothers for a quiet conversation. Some of them sit in a circle on a leaf, hanging their legs into the water, while others prefer to talk, swaying in the corollas of water lilies. Gathering together, they sit in capsules and row, row with petal oars, and the capsules then serve them as boats or boats. The conversations of the elves take place at a late hour, when everything on the lake has calmed down and plunged into a deep sleep. Lake elves live in underwater crystal chambers built from shells. Pearls, yachts, silver and corals glisten around the halls. Emerald streams roll along the bottom of the lake, dotted with multi-colored pebbles, and waterfalls fall on the roofs of the halls. The sun shines through the water into these dwellings, and the moon and the stars call the elves to the shore. The charm of the water lily acts charmingly not only on Europeans. There are many legends and legends about it among other peoples. Here is what, for example, is said in the legend of the North American Indians. Dying, the great Indian leader shot an arrow into the sky. The arrow really wanted to get two bright stars. They rushed after the arrow, but collided, and sparks fell on the ground from the collision. From these heavenly sparks, water lilies were born. A powerful plant, and not just a beautiful flower, was considered a white lily among the Slavic peoples. The water lily is nothing more than the famous fairy-tale grass. Rumor ascribes magical properties to it. She can give strength to overcome the enemy, protect from troubles and misfortunes, but she can also destroy the one who was looking for her with unclean thoughts. A decoction of a water lily was considered a love drink, it was worn in an amulet on the chest as a talisman. The Slavs believed that the water lily was able to protect people from various misfortunes and troubles while traveling. Going on a long journey, people sewed leaves and flowers of water lilies into small bags, carried water lilies with them as an amulet and firmly believed that this would bring them good luck and protect them from misfortunes. There was also a kind of spell on this occasion: “I’m riding in an open field, and grass grows in an open field. I didn’t give birth to you, I didn’t water you. Overcome the grass! Overcome the evil people: they would have famously not thought of me, they did not think badly; drive away the sorcerer-tattler. Overcome-grass! Overcome high mountains, low valleys, blue lakes, steep banks, dark forests, stumps and decks. I will hide you, overpowering grass, at the zealous heart all the way and all the way! Unfortunately, in fact, a beautiful flower cannot even stand up for itself. And it is not he who should protect us, but we must protect him so that this miracle does not disappear, so that sometimes in the morning we can see how bright white stars appear on the surface of still dark water and, as if wide-open eyes, look at the beautiful world of nature, which is even more beautiful because that these flowers exist - white lilies. A relative of our white water lily is the yellow water lily, which is popularly called the egg lily. The Latin name for the capsule is "nufar luteum". "Nyufar" comes from the Arabic word, which also means "nymph", "luteum" - "yellow". At whatever time of the day you come to look at a blooming water lily, you will never find its flowers in the same position. All day the water lily follows the movement of the sun. In the distant past, the entire coastal strip of Italy, from Pisa to Naples, was occupied by swamps. In all likelihood, the legend of the beautiful Melinda and the swamp king was born there. The king's eyes shimmered like phosphorescent rot, and instead of legs there were frog legs. And yet he became the husband of the beautiful Melinda, whom he was helped to get by a yellow egg-pod, personifying treason and deceit from time immemorial. Walking with her friends by the swampy lake, Melinda admired the golden floating flowers and, in order to pick one of them, stepped on the coastal stump, under the guise of which the lord of the bog was hiding. The stump went to the bottom and dragged the girl along with it, and in the place where she disappeared under water, snow-white flowers with a yellow core surfaced. So after the lilies-pods appeared water lilies-water lilies, meaning in the ancient language of flowers: "You must never deceive me." The pod blooms from late May to August. At this time, next to the floating leaves, you can see large yellow, almost spherical flowers sticking high on thick pedicels. The capsule has long been considered a medicinal plant in folk medicine. Both leaves were used, and a thick, up to 15 centimeters long, rhizome lying on the bottom, and large, well-smelling flowers reaching 5 centimeters in diameter. They cut off the egg-pod and in order to decorate her dwelling with flowers. And in vain: the flowers of the capsule, like the white lily, do not stand in vases. Author: Martyanova L.M.
Water lily. Legends and tales
Early morning. There is no breeze on the lake. The surface of the water is like a mirror, and among this mirror, peeping here and there, like the heads of mermaids, wonderful white water lilies with their beautiful buds, round, in the form of corymbs, covered with floating leaves, as it were wax ... And our imagination is involuntarily transported to the far north-west, to Elsinore, to the castle of Kroneborg, with its marvelous lake, bright as a crystal, overgrown with water lilies. Crazy Ophelia in a wreath of water lilies and with bunches of them in her hands slowly descends singing into the lake. She descends lower and lower, sinks deeper and deeper into the water and, finally, quietly carried away by the current, is carried away into the distance .... Behind her float the water lilies that have fallen from her hands, the grasses that have come off the shore float, and from afar quietly, as if dying , the final stanzas of her sad song are heard: "The daylighter has already begun, // Valentine's day has come, // A girl is standing under the window - // Is the darling sleeping or has he risen? .." This charming flower has always enjoyed the love and patronage of young people. In ancient Greece, it was considered a symbol of beauty and eloquence. Young girls wove garlands from it and decorated their heads and their tunics with them. According to Theocritus, young Greek women wove a wreath of water lilies for the beautiful Helen on the day of her wedding with King Menelaus and decorated the entrance to their marriage room with it. In the same way, they loved him in Ancient Rome, and on the fresco of one of the recently excavated temples in Pompeii, one can still see water lily flowers decorating winged gods and geniuses. This wondrous water lily, according to one Greek legend, arose from the body of a lovely nymph who died from love and jealousy for Hercules, who remained cold to her. From her, she received her scientific name Nymphaea. As an echo, probably, of this legend, in ancient Germanic tales it is told that nymph nyxes constantly live in ponds and lakes among these flowers and reeds. The upper part of the body of these water beauties is a beautifully built beautiful women with an always smiling friendly face, and the lower part is an ugly fish tail. They lure people into the water and drag them to the bottom, to a damp premature grave. But on the other hand, this charming flower itself, in its own way, has many similarities with these water maidens. He also attracts everyone with his beauty and also destroys those who are fond of him. More than once there have been cases when those who wanted to pick the lovely water lilies drowned, swimming too far into the depths that usually surround these flowers, or suffocated under water, entangled in their long underwater stems. They are especially dangerous for children, who often become victims of their desire to get them at all costs. In the Black Forest in Germany, there is even a large beautiful lake called Mummelsee, from the old German word "die Mummel" - a nymph, with which it seems to be populated in many. Popular belief says that these nymphs hide here in flowers and on the leaves of water lilies, along with tiny elves, for whom these flowers serve as boats or boats. At midnight, the nymphs begin to dance and, circling in a whirlwind, drag people passing by the lake with them. These round dances are especially lively and cheerful on bright moonlit nights. And woe to that daredevil who would take it into his head to pluck the lilies growing on the lake. The nymphs guarding them seize him and drag him with them into the depths, into their underwater kingdom; and even if he managed to somehow escape from them, then grief would dry him up. This belief is very poetically told by the German poet Schreiber in his poem: "Mermaid Lake": “High on a mountain overgrown with fir trees lies a black lake, and on this lake a lily white as snow floats. One day a shepherd boy comes to this lake with a walnut branch in his hands and says: “I want to get this wonderful lily at all costs.” He draws her already safely to the sedge-covered shore, when suddenly a white hand appears from the water.She plunges the lily into the depths, into the underwater kingdom, and says: "Come with me, dear, I will reveal many great secrets to you. At the bottom, the lily that you like so much is deeply rooted, I will pluck it for you if you surrender to me. "Then the young man is terrified. He runs from the lake, but cannot drive away the thought of a lily as white as snow. And he wanders with since then he has been in the mountains with grief that devours his soul, and no one can say where he has gone. In Slavic mythology, all these mummels, nymphs and nyxes are replaced by mermaids, who, appearing sometimes in Germanic legends, play there, as we will see later, usually already secondary roles and are, as it were, subordinate to the nyx - their slaves. Mermaids live in underwater crystal halls built of shells, where pearls, yachts, silver and corals glisten. Along their bottom, dotted with multi-colored pebbles, emerald streams roll or waterfalls fall to the very halls. The sun shines through the water into these dwellings, and the moon and the stars call the mermaids to the shore. These mermaids sometimes turn into our water lilies. Let's listen to the old Germanic legend told by Balabanova in her article "Thuringia in pictures": "One of the most beautiful landscapes of the famous Thuringian Forest in Germany, as you know, is Schwarztal, where Schwarzburg Castle rises on a huge rock. This castle was restored in the XNUMXth century, since the old one burned to the ground. Tradition says that in the old pond of this castle lived - there was a wicked nyxa a few hundred years ago, who had two lovely young mermaids in her service. Mermaids often came to watch the festivities in the castle, and then two knights drew their attention to them. Soon the mermaids fell in love with these knights and were ready to leave the waters and follow them. But the old nyxa suspected the mermaids of dealing with the inhabitants of the castle and decided to watch for them. With the help of magic, she changed all the hours of the castle, and the mermaids could only leave the water from sunset to midnight. At midnight, they were always supposed to be in the pond. Our young mermaids were merrily talking in the knight's hall, not foreseeing the impending disaster. The big clock of the castle struck eleven, there was still a whole hour left before midnight, and meanwhile it had already struck twelve on the church clock of Schwarzburg - the watchman also announced midnight. The poor mermaids rushed to the pond. The knights also ran after them, but did not have time to save them. When they reached the pond, then at the place where a minute before the white dresses of mermaids flashed, two white water lilies rose from the water: the evil nyxa turned the mermaids into these flowers. These water lilies bloomed for a long time, the knights mourned their dear lovers for a long time, but by autumn the flowers withered, and the knights went to the Holy Land and did not return ... From that time on, the pond began to dry, and soon there was not enough water in it even for the evil nyxa - she had to suffocate in that pond. Now this pond stands completely dry, not filling up with water even in the autumn bad weather and spring flood ... " According to another beautiful Italian legend, reported by Amfiteatrov, these are the children of the Italian beauty Countess Melinda, carried away into the mire by the marsh king. The marsh king living in the swamps of the Maremma was so ugly that no one wanted to marry him - neither from earthly girls, nor from fairy fairies. Black, dirty, molded from swamp clay, all entangled in algae, he was a disgusting monster. His eyes glowed a little, like rot. Instead of ears, he had empty slug shells, and instead of legs, he had frog legs. And this monster decided to get himself a wife. But how to do that? How to find such a girl, and, moreover, still beautiful, as he wanted, who would agree to this? I thought and thought and decided to get it by cunning. Hearing that on the border of his swamps lives a beautiful, golden-haired Melinda, the daughter of a countess, he decided to lure her to him and take her by force. It was only necessary to wait for an opportunity, and this opportunity soon presented itself. One of the servants of the young countess, who went to the swamp, suddenly noticed wonderful yellow capsules (a plant from the same Nymphaeaceae family, closely related to the water lily), which she had never seen before, and ran to tell her about it. Melinda, who was very fond of flowers, decided to go see them, went down from the mountain where their castle was located, to the very bog itself, and was really so amazed by the yellowish capsules she had never seen that she wanted to get them. But the flowers grew just in the swamp, in the middle of the bog, and Melinda could not reach them with her hand. In desperation, she walked along the shore and thought how she could get to them. And at that time she noticed a rotten, completely black stump lying on the shore and decided to move onto it. Leaping like a goat, she stepped on it with her foot and reached out to the flower to pick it, when suddenly this stump came to life, grabbed her in his arms and dragged her to the bottom. It turned out that this stump was nothing more than the swamp king himself lying motionless. The maid, seeing the death of her mistress, was at a loss and hurried to report this misfortune to the old countess. The countess hurried to the swamp, but what could she do, not even knowing the place where her daughter sucked mud?! Heartbroken, she went daily to the shore of that accursed swamp and shed bitter tears, expecting that maybe someone or something would help. Suddenly, one autumn, before the birds flew south, a stork came up to her and, to her great surprise, said in a human voice: - Don't kill yourself, Countess. Your daughter is alive. She was kidnapped by the swamp king - the ruler of this maremma. If you want to hear about her, go to the sorcerer who lives here on the Maremma. He knows everything and will inform you. The countess obeyed, found out in detail where this sorcerer lives, and, taking with her a pile of gold, went to him and asked him to help. The sorcerer, having received the gold, thought and said: "Well, call your daughter nine morning and nine evening dawns and nine times at the place where she drowned. If she has not yet become the wife of the swamp king, he will have to let her go." And so the countess called her nine morning and evening dawns, and when she finally reached the last dawn, she suddenly heard a voice emerging from the swamp: - You're calling me late, mom. I am already the wife of the king of the marsh and condemned to remain his slave forever. I'm talking to you for the last time. Winter is coming, and my husband and I will doze off on a muddy bed until next spring. In the summer I will let you know that I am alive and remember you. Winter has passed, spring has passed, summer has come. With pain in her heart, the countess went to the damned swamp: would she see the news promised to her by her daughter. She stood, stood, looked, looked and suddenly noticed on the surface of the water, in the middle of a clean swamp, a marvelous white flower - a water lily - rose on a long stalk. Looking at its wonderful petals, shining like satin, slightly ruddy, like a ray of pink dawn, the poor countess recognized the complexion of her daughter, and the numerous stamens that filled her middle were golden, like Melinda's hair. And the countess realized that in front of her was her granddaughter - the child of Melinda's union with the marsh king. And since then, for many years, every year Melinda covered the bog with a whole carpet of white water lilies, announcing that she was alive and eternally young and beautiful reigns over the swamp. And every year, every day, whenever she could, the old countess, until her death, went to the swamp, admired the flowers - her granddaughters and consoled herself with the thought that if her daughter was no longer in this world, then in the depths of the waters of her swamp kingdom she still alive and well...
But the charm of the water lily acts charmingly not only on Europeans: there are many legends about it among the peoples of other parts of the world. Especially poetic is the legend of the North American Indians about it, who claim that the water lily was formed from sparks that fell from the polar and evening stars at the time when they collided, arguing among themselves over the possession of an arrow, which at the moment of death was shot into the sky by one great Indian leader. The water lily, or mermaid flower, as it was also often formerly called, has been from time immemorial an object of worship and even adoration among the northwestern Germans, and especially among the Frisians and Zeelanders. They called it a swan flower and honored it so highly that, having placed 7 such flowers in their coat of arms, they considered themselves invincible under this banner. In the song of the Gudruns, in the place where the blue banner of King Gerwig von Seewen is described, it is said that swan flowers flutter on it. These flowers are still preserved on the Frisian banner and in the coat of arms of the province of Groningen. The plant is also called "Pompe" by the friezes, and its flowers are called sea leaves (Seeblatter). (The Frisians are a people in the Netherlands and Germany.) In the Middle Ages, the white water lily flower was also considered a symbol of purity, and therefore its seeds were recommended as a means of tempering passions. As a result, they were available at that time in almost all monasteries and they were ordered to be given to monks and nuns. Hermits who had retired from the world, who wanted to kill their flesh, used them especially a lot. According to the latest research, however, the attribution of this property to the seeds turned out to be incorrect. These seeds were also used by singers to strengthen and strengthen their voices. In addition, it was believed that this remedy helps with convulsions and dizziness, and the rhizome of the plant - in the absence of appetite. The treatment was carried out not so much by ingestion as by hanging by the patient's bed. At the same time, for the preparation of medicines, it was recommended to deal with plants with special precautions: pluck it only at night, dry it in the shade on the north side and certainly in a hanging position, since otherwise the medicinal principle will not pass into the body of the patient and will not be able to expel the disease from him. . And in general, when collecting water lily flowers for a medicinal purpose, it was necessary to act in a completely different way than with other flowers: tear at only known hours, plugging your ears and turning to them first with affectionate words. Having spoken in this way, one should suddenly reach out and pick a flower. Cutting off with scissors, a knife, or anything sharp in general was strictly forbidden, otherwise the stem would begin to bleed and the cutter would be haunted by heavy dreams or even be drawn into the water by water spirits indignant at such an act. Flowers of white water lilies should never be brought into the house, as this threatened the death of all livestock. The water lily also used mystical and healing significance among our Slavic ancestors, and in the Transcaspian region - even to this day. In this sense, she wore and is called "overcome". This name, according to Afanasyev, comes from the word "overcome", and, moreover, in the meaning: to overcome evil spirits and ailments. "Whoever finds the overpowered grass," says one folk herbalist, "he will find great talent for himself." (Afanasiev A.N. (1826 -1871), Russian historian and literary critic, folklore researcher, author of collections of Russian folk tales and legends, as well as the three-volume work "Poetic views of the Slavs on nature" (1866 -1889).) Our ancestors treated toothache and poisons with a decoction of overcoming, and besides, this decoction was considered by them as a love drink, capable of awakening tender feelings in the heart of cruel beauties; and with the rhizome, the shepherds went around the field so that not a single cattle was lost. The Slavs attributed to him an important protective value during travels. Anyone who went to a foreign land (especially a merchant) had, according to the same Afanasiev, stock up on this grass, since it was said about her: "wherever he goes, he will find a lot of good." And so, going on a long journey, cautious people protected themselves with the following spell: "I'm going in an open field, and in an open field, grass is growing. Overcome-grass! I did not water you, I did not give birth to you; mother gave birth to you - damp earth, you were watered by bare-haired girls, cigarette-rolling women. Overcome-grass! Defeat the evil people; no matter what they thought of us, they didn’t think badly, drive away the sorcerer, the sneak. Overcome-grass! Overcome the high mountains, low valleys, blue lakes, steep banks, dark forests, stumps and decks! .. I will hide you, overpowering grass, at the zealous heart all the way and all the way. The ancient Serbs had the same reverence for this plant. They have this song about him: "If a woman knew, // What grass is overpowered, // I would sew it into my belt // And I would wear it on myself." Author: Zolotnitsky N.
Water lily. Botanical description, plant history, legends and folk traditions, cultivation and use
For a long time, the idea of a water lily, rooted in the mysterious depths of the waters, has been associated with the mysterious image of a mermaid. In ancient times, it was even called the mermaid flower. The North American Indians claim that the water lily was formed from sparks that fell from the North and evening stars at the time they collided, arguing among themselves over the possession of a rocket that was launched from Earth. With a close look at the water lilies, fairy tales come to mind, which say that each water lily has its own elf friend (little man), who is born together with the flower, and dies together. Corollas of flowers serve the elves as both a home and a bell. During the day, the elves sleep in the depths of the flower, and at night they swing the pestle and call, calling their brothers for a quiet conversation. Some of them sit in a circle on a lotus, hanging their legs into the water, while others prefer to talk, swaying in the corollas of water lilies. Gathering together, they sit in capsules, and row, row with petal oars, and the capsules then serve them as boats or boats. The conversations of the elves take place at a late hour, when everything on the lake has calmed down and plunged into a deep sleep. Lake elves live in underwater crystal chambers built from shells. Pearls, yachts, silver and corals glisten around the halls. Emerald streams roll along the bottom of the lake, dotted with multi-colored pebbles, and waterfalls fall on the roofs of the halls. The sun shines through the water into these dwellings, and the moon and the stars call the elves to the shore. According to an old Russian belief, when the first spring rains hit the surface of rivers and seas, pearl shells rise from the depths of the reservoirs to the sound of rain. Swimming, they open their mother-of-pearl doors and catch raindrops. As soon as the shells catch at least one drop, they sink to the bottom, where in the dark they turn the drops into an incomparable pearl - pearls, which are very necessary for gnomes in the construction of underwater crystal halls. The inhabitants of the Russian North, having long known that pearls are bred only in those rivers into which the royal salmon fish enters, gave rise to a legend that the pearl is born in the gills of the salmon. Swimming in the sea for several years, the salmon seems to carry a pearl spark with it, and when it returns to the river, on a warm sunny day it finds open shells at the bottom and lowers a star-pearl into the most beautiful of them, from which a real pearl subsequently grows, then gently -pink, sometimes blue-black, sometimes darkish-gray, to match the pearl necklaces with which large spring dew strews water lilies in the morning. A white water lily in Latin is called "Nymphea Candida", which in translation into Russian means "White Nymph". Legends about beautiful water nymph girls resembling Slavic mermaids have come down to us from ancient Greece. A relative, almost a sister of our white water lily, is the yellow water lily, which is popularly called the egg lily. She has the same structure of flowers, only the ovary is even more reminiscent of a jug and sepals, not four, but five, and they all have a yellow lining. The Latin name for the capsule is "kufar luteum". "Nyufar" comes from the Arabic word, which also means "nymph", "luteum" "yellow". At whatever time of the day you come to look at a blooming water lily, you will never find its flowers in the same position. All day long, the water lily follows the movement of the sun, turning its floating head towards its rays. In the midday heat, she, as if basking, opens all her petals, and then the corollas begin to gradually close. By evening, the flower looks like an unblown bud, this bud slowly sinks into the water, being afraid of cold dew and fogs. These stems shorten and pull flowers along with them. In doing so, cover the water lily at night with water heated during the day. And in the morning, when the sun disperses the night fog, it rises to the surface again and follows the sun all day. The ends of the petals of water lilies secrete honey: bumblebees, dragonflies and bees carry pollen from flower to flower, pollinating the pistils. After pollination, the flower wilts, and the fruit grows in the form of a multi-star berry with black seeds. Water lily seeds travel straight through the water. Each seed of the White water lily is surrounded by a white shell filled with air. Like a boat, it floats on the water. And in the yellow flesh, the seeds hold the seeds on the surface, and they stay like that until the air comes out of the boat or the pulp of the fruit rots. Then the seed falls to the bottom and germinates. Fish and birds contribute to the dispersal of seeds over long distances. And the seeds themselves are able to stay on the water for quite a long time. A breeze will blow, and they will rush along the lake either to the other shore or to another channel. Water lily blooms from July to autumn. Inhabits stagnant and slowly flowing waters. The Slavs called the water lily grass and believed that the water lily was able to protect people during the journey. There was also a kind of spell on this occasion: “I’m riding in an open field, and grass grows in an open field. I didn’t give birth to you, I didn’t water you. Overcome the grass! Overcome the evil people: they would have famously not thought of me, they did not think badly; drive away the sorcerer-tattler. Overcome-grass! Overcome high mountains, low valleys, blue lakes, steep banks, dark forests, stumps and decks. I’ll hide you, overpowered grass, at the zealous heart all the way and in the whole path! ”There was even a belief: “Whoever finds overpowered grass, that great talent will find ... On the way, wherever he goes, he will find a lot of good and overcome evil power and disease." A decoction of a water lily was considered a love drink that could awaken tender feelings in the hearts of cruel beauties. And it was also believed that the overpowered grass had the ability to protect people traveling to other lands from various troubles and misfortunes. It was recommended to put it in an amulet and carry it with you as an amulet. Maybe Afanasy Nikitin, the first Russian to visit India, recalled this belief before sailing to the eastern countries. An old herbalist says: “Odolen grows by the rivers, growing to a cubit, the color is rudoyellow, the leaves are white. And that grass is good, if a person is fed. will love and if you want to dry it - let me eat the root. "A white water lily is similar in shape to a poppy: its flower has the shape of a pomegranate flower, only correspondingly larger; its weight is about the size of an apple, surrounded by white films, which are covered on the outside with green leaves, resembling leaves on unopened rose buds, there are four of them. When it open, you can see red grains in it, not like pomegranate seeds, but round and small, a little larger than millet.They taste insipid, like wheat grains; they ripen in summer; the stem of the flower is long. The flower is like a cup of a rose, but almost twice as much, "says the famous botanist of antiquity Theophrastus about the water beauty. ... A water lily leaf is floating, like a raft, outwardly simple, heart-shaped and thick, like a flat cake; inside it are air-strip cavities, therefore it does not sink. There is several times more air in it in order to hold its own weight, the excess of which is necessary for unforeseen accidents: if, say, a bird or a frog sits down, the leaf must hold them. In Texas, there is a Mexican water lily called the water banana. There are few exotic plants that are as widely known as Victoria Regia - a giant water lily from the quiet backwaters of equatorial South America. Its flowering is reported in newspapers and local radio broadcasts in those cities where this peculiar plant is grown in special greenhouses, and in the south - in open reservoirs. People of all ages flock to the greenhouses to watch the visitor from the wilds of Brazil, reminiscent of the travels and adventures we read about with enthusiasm in our youth. Visitors pass in a long line around a large pool with heated water, where huge, up to two meters in diameter, round leaves float on a mirror surface, and large flowers rise above them. From above, Victoria is bright green, below it is bright purple, and therefore it seems as if illuminated by some kind of radiance. Each flower is made up of countless petals, shimmering from pure white to soft pink and finally to fiery purple. Blossomed, Victoria Regia spreads a pleasant fragrance around itself. When this amazing plant, after many failures, finally bloomed in England in 1849, it caused a real sensation. One should not be surprised at those magnificent epithets "queen of water lilies", "queen of water roses", "water miracle of tropical America", which this plant was called in magazines. The German naturalist Eduard Friedrich Peppig was the first to discover it for science. From 1827 to 1832, Peptig traveled through South America and crossed the mainland from west to east almost along the equator. It moved from the Pacific Ocean to Chile, through the Andes, then crossed Peru and Brazil, descended along the Amazon tributary, the Huallaga River, and reached the Atlantic Ocean along the Amazon and Para. Repeatedly exposed to danger, at the risk of his life, he traveled thousands of kilometers along the greatest river in the world, often using the most primitive means. In January 1832, in the middle of the journey, descending on rafts, accompanied by only a few Indians and often wandering in the numerous channels and channels of the mighty river, not far from the place where the Tefe River flows into the Amazon, Peppig discovered a thicket of a plant that later received a loud name - victoria regia. In one of the magazines, Peppig first gave a description of a giant water lily. "A plant of the Nymphaeaceae family, of extraordinary size. Its leaves are densely covered on the underside with needles, cellular, a fathom wide, while snow-white flowers with a purple-pink center reach ten or eleven English inches in diameter. This plant, which is the most magnificent form in the whole family, is by no means common, and I have met only in some nameless channels near the mouth of the Tefe at Solimões. It blooms in December - January and is called mururu "The modest message of Pegshit did not cause a sensation. But already in 1836, the German botanist Robert Hermann Schomburgk, who was conducting research in British Guiana on behalf of the Royal Geographical Society of London, met a plant whose giant leaves and huge fragrant flowers made a strong impression on him. Schomburgk assigned the plant to the genus Nymphaeum, to which our white water lily belongs, and gave it the name "nymphea victoria". Naming the amazing plant after the eighteen-year-old beauty queen, who had just ascended the English throne, the botanist counted on attracting the attention of influential people, Schomburg, collected parts of the plant and seeds, made detailed drawings and descriptions, and sent all the materials to England. In 1837, Professor Lindley established that the found plant should be attributed to a new, still unknown genus from the water lily family, and, supporting the initiative of Schomburgk, he named the new genus "Victoria", and the only then known species of this genus was called "Victoria regal". Schomburg "for services to the British Empire" received a knighthood and became known as Sir Schomburgh. Rumors about an amazing plant penetrated into the most remote corners of the globe, including Victoria's homeland in South America. It was then that it was discovered that before Schomburgk and Peppig, a giant water lily was seen not only by local residents, but also by natural botanists, who either did not describe it, or they did not reach their destination and did not become the property of science. The French traveler Alcide d'Orbigny, who, according to him, saw Victoria before Schomburgk and Peppig, also claimed the priority of the discovery of Victoria, back in 1828. Here is what d'Orbigny says about the plant: "On March 3, I resumed my navigation and, descending quickly along the Parana, I came to the mouth of the small river San José, which forms a huge swamp before it flows into the river. There I found a plant that, perhaps , is one of the most beautiful plants in America. This plant is known among the Guarani Indians under the name "irupe" ("and" - "water", "rule" - "dish", "tray"). Imagine, in a space about a quarter of a league or more wide, rounded, floating on the surface of the water, leaves from one to two meters in diameter, the edges of which, like a dish, are perpendicularly raised two fingers above the water. These leaves are smooth from above, from below they are divided into a mass of regular compartments, which are formed by strongly protruding ribs filled with air, supporting the leaves on the water. The entire lower surface of the leaves, like the stem and flowers, is covered with thorns. In the midst of this wide expanse, huge, leaf-sized flowers over a foot in diameter sparkle, sometimes lilac, sometimes pink, sometimes white, always double and emitting a delicate aroma. These flowers then form globular fruits that grow as large as half a head and are filled with rounded, very mealy seeds. I could not stop admiring this vegetable colossus, I collected flowers, leaves and fruits and went to Corrientes. As soon as I returned to the city of Corrientes, I hurried to make a drawing of this charming water lily and showed my find to the locals. They told me that the seeds of this plant are a valuable food product, they can be eaten like maize, which is why in Spanish the plant is called "mais del aqua" - that is, "water maize". D'Orbigny described a species of victoria, different from that found by Peppig and Schomburgk and common in Argentina: "Later I heard from a friend of Bokplan that Bonpland had seen this magnificent plant eight years before me near the small river Riojuelo; trying to get a copy of the latter, he barely didn't fall into the river and four weeks later couldn't talk about anything but this plant." D'Orbigny also had to observe the second view of Victoria: (Climbing the Madeira near the confluence of the Mamore River ... in one immensely large lake with stagnant water, but connected with a river, I suddenly saw a plant so exceptional in appearance that I was immediately convinced that this plant was similar to the water maize that I found in Corrientes. However, to my great joy, I found that it was specifically different from the one I had seen before - this one has a crimson red underside and the petals are quite peculiar. Thanks to d'Orbigny, the existence of two types of victoria became known, and Bonpland, who first saw it, could not confirm and prove the primacy of the discovery. In 1835, he sent Victoria Regia seeds to Professor Mirabel in Paris, enclosing a detailed written message: “Water maize got its name from the locals because its fruits contain many round seeds filled with a snow-white starchy substance that replaces maize flour. Flour, made from water maize, not only is it as good as real maize flour, but it is not inferior to the best wheat flour and surpasses cassava flour obtained from tubers of woody plants. By the time the water maize is ripe, the women of Corrientes are diligently busy collecting the seeds and preparing flour from them, which they then carefully preserve. From this flour they make many pies and rolls. One type of biscuit is especially valued, that it is considered a luxury to eat it.
Unfortunately, the victoria seeds sent by Bonpland perished. And by the time he received his message, Victoria-Regia had already appeared in the greenhouses of Europe and in 1849 successfully bloomed in England. This was achieved as a result of great efforts after a number of unsuccessful attempts. In 1842, Schomburgk sent a large quantity of seeds and plant parts to the botanical gardens at Kew, near London, but all attempts to root plant parts were unsuccessful. Seeds placed in water with silt came rotten, and sent dry though Bonpland Aimé, a French botanist and traveler, allegedly saw Victoria Regia in 1820, that is, eight years before the official discovery of Alcid d'Orbigny, and survived, but dried up and completely lost their germination. Success was achieved by the English doctors Rodi and Lucky, who sent victoria seeds in a bottle of clean water from British Guiana to Kew in 1849. The seeds sent by Rody and Lucky germinated, and already in the spring of 1849, six young Victoria plants were obtained in the botanical garden in Kew. Five plants were grown in the greenhouse in Kew, and one in the greenhouse of the Duke of Devonshire in Chartsworth. All the plants developed successfully, but only one of them, in Chartsworth, bloomed in 1849. The rest did not bloom in Kew until the following summer. The news that Victoria should bloom quickly spread not only among the employees of the botanical garden and scientists, but also among artists and reporters. By the time the flower opened, a huge crowd had gathered in the greenhouse. Everyone looked at the clock, worried. At five o'clock in the evening, a closed bud appeared above the water, its sepals opened and revealed snow-white petals of amazing beauty. “The attendees stood amazed at the grandeur of the phenomenon, and did not know what to be surprised at - whether the size and beauty of the forms, the indescribable fragrance in the greenhouse that spread during the flowering of the plant, or, finally, the unparalleled speed of the opening of the flower,” wrote the famous botanist-aquarist N. F. Zolotnitsky. Two hours later, the flower closed its petals again and sank under the water. The next day, people gathered in the greenhouse in the morning in anticipation of another miracle. And then the Victoria flower opened again at seven o'clock in the evening, and, to the surprise of all those present, an unexpected transformation of the flower took place - it was no longer white, but bright pink. Soon the petals began to fall, and their color became more and more intense. After the petals completely fell off, the active movement of the stamens swayed, which, according to eyewitnesses, was even audible ... " The report that in England it was possible to grow Victoria and bring it to flowering, as well as get germinating seeds, made a sensation among gardeners in Europe. The British Parliament allocated three thousand five hundred pounds sterling for the construction of a special greenhouse in Kew. In 1851, Victoria bloomed in France, Italy, Germany, India, the USA, and in 1854 - in St. Petersburg. In 1853, a special greenhouse was built in the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden with a pool 7,6 meters in diameter, where Victoria was planted. The plant developed well, blossomed and bore fruit. The Amazonian water lily Victoria Regia has leaves with such a reserve of buoyancy that they can withstand the weight of an adult. Wanting to check the carrying capacity of a leaf, one of the researchers poured ten buckets of sand on it, and only then the leaf sank. Such buoyancy is due to their successful design. From the petiole, thick hollow veins fan out, which stretch radiantly to the edge of the leaf. The English architect D. Paxton used the sheet model when designing the Crystal Palace in London. He put up a Victoria sheet for viewing and stated that the idea of \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbbuilding the palace did not belong to him, but to nature. The system of beams and supports corresponded exactly to the interweaving of veins in the leaf of the Amazonian water lily. It was thought that a large reserve of buoyancy was needed for a Victoria leaf so as not to drown during heavy rains when its "dish" is filled with rainwater, but this is not so. It turned out that the leaves have excellent casting devices, like gutters on the roofs of houses, and the bottom itself is dotted with many holes. At home, in the tropics, Victoria grows more than twelve leaves. After two or three days, a new leaf appears. It begins to open during the day and at night reaches its usual size - about two meters in diameter. Victoria bloom lasts two to three nights. Before the flower opens, the evening air carries the scent of ripe pineapple. Then fifty white petals slowly and solemnly unfurl at dusk. All night the flower is fragrant, dissipating heat around it. We measured the temperature inside the flower - it turned out to be eleven degrees higher than the ambient temperature. In the morning, the smell disappears, the petals fold to open red the next evening. Only the most extreme ones remain white. In our reservoirs, only three types of water lilies grow, belonging to the nymphaeal family. In the reservoirs of warm countries, there are much more nymphs - and the genus of water lilies has about fifty species. The Australian poet Judith Wright wrote: "Here is a lily, chiseled with water, / Above its fiery core / Prayerfully spreads petals, / Huge and blue as evening." In all likelihood, the poetess sang the local water lily with a giant, up to thirty-five centimeters in diameter, dark blue porcelain flower with bright orange stamens. Author: Krasikov S.
Water lily (water lily), Nimphaea olba (L.). Description, habitats, nutritional value, culinary use
White water lily is a perennial herbaceous aquatic plant from the water lily family, with large long-petiolate, heart-shaped oval floating leaves. Leaves depart from a thick (4-5 cm) rhizome located at the bottom of the reservoir. The flowers are large, white, with a green calyx, slightly fragrant. The fruits are spherical, green, multi-celled, in the form of a small jug. It occurs in stagnant and slowly flowing waters, in bays of rivers, oxbow lakes, lakes, ponds. The rhizome contains up to 49% starch, 8% protein, up to 20% sugars, as well as tannins, and essential oils in the flowers. The rhizome can be used as food. It is cut into slices, dried and ground into flour. The resulting flour is poured three times with water to remove tannins. After that, the flour is dried and used for baking cakes, cutlets, biscuits, bread rolls and for dressing dishes. Author: Koshcheev A.K.
Water lily. Interesting plant facts
Water lily - the scientific name of the water lily family comes from the mythological nymphs who lived in the water and were the personification of beauty and tenderness. Ancient Greek myths tell us that river nymphs, falling in love and not finding reciprocity, turned into wonderful white flowers from longing and sadness. A water lily can accurately predict the end of a frost. When a leaf of a water lily floats up and spreads on the surface of the water, it is a sure sign that there will be no more spring frosts. A water lily flower can also predict time. Flowers appear in the early morning, around 5-6 o'clock, by 7 o'clock they open completely and remain in this state until 17-18 o'clock. At this time, the flowers close and go under water, orienting their apex towards the setting sun. If the flowers of the water lily closed and went under the water prematurely - there will be bad weather. Our distant Slavic ancestors called the water lily grass and attributed miraculous powers to it. Often, pieces of water lily rhizomes were sewn into an amulet and worn on the chest "at the zealous heart" as a talisman against black forces, ailments, various mythical monsters and robbers lying in wait for travelers. The water lily was also called the mermaid flower, as it hides under water at night, and the thick spotted rhizome looks like body parts of fabulous creatures. The ancient Greeks believed that a water lily is able to endow, endow a person with the talent of an orator, storyteller. In the Middle Ages, in Holland, Germany, Switzerland, many fairy tales and legends were created about mysterious elves living in water lily flowers. In the temperate zone, in quiet backwaters, three types of water lilies grow: white, pale white and small-flowered. Water lily white - perennial. The rhizome of the water lily "spreads" along the bottom of the reservoir, and large leaves float on the surface of the water. It occurs along river reaches, backwaters and backwaters of almost the entire globe. The underwater rhizome of the water lily reaches a thickness of 10 cm. Leaves up to 20-30 cm in diameter grow from it on long petioles. Being constantly in the water, the water lily is forced to intensively evaporate it so that the solutions of mineral salts absorbed by the roots come to the leaves. Water evaporates through numerous stomata on the upper side of the leaf. On one sheet; there are about 11-12 million of them. The underside of the leaves is colored dark purple. Due to the dark color, the sheet warms up better, and evaporation increases. Water lily fruits are spherical or egg-shaped with a fleshy shell that quickly rots in water. The seeds are released and float to the surface, floating for a long time. Seeds are equipped with a kind of sail. Under the influence of wind and currents, they are able to migrate over long distances. The seeds are readily eaten by waterfowl. Man has long been eating the seeds and rhizomes of water lilies. Archaeologists have found water lily seeds in piled structures that existed 50-70 thousand years ago. Dried rhizomes contain 20-21% starch, 5-6% glucose, 1-1,5% fats, tannins and organic substances, proteins; dry seeds - 47% starch and 12-14% fat. Thick underwater rhizomes of the water lily can be eaten boiled, stewed and fried. But before cooking, it is necessary to soak well in water, changing it several times in order to wash out the bitter tannins. After hot cooking, the bitter taste completely disappears. Some peoples of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America still prepare flour from the rhizomes of the water lily, which is used as an admixture, an additive to grain flour, and also to obtain starch. Excess tannins are eliminated by soaking the rhizomes cut into pieces in clean water, which is changed several times every two to three hours. Dried and roasted seeds are used for cereals and flour. You can also eat raw seeds, reminiscent of the taste of the fruits of an edible chestnut. The rhizomes are harvested in late autumn on thin ice or in early spring from boats, cleaned of silt, remnants of leaf petioles and coarse upper crust. Dried dry rhizomes are ground into flour, crushed into groats. If the flour or cereal is still bitter, they can be poured with water, stirred well, let stand for several hours, and then drained. A third of the grain flour is added to the washed mass and the dough is prepared for donuts, pancakes, pancakes, dumplings, etc. In Podolia and Polissya, a kind of delicious food is prepared from the flour of the rhizomes of the water lily. Two cups of rhizome flour and a glass of barley flour are fried in a pan until golden brown. Add three quarters of a cup of salted boiling water and stir until the consistency of a thick dough. Well-mixed dough is rolled out, then cut into small cubes. 100 g of fresh lard is fried until brown and added to the dough, stirred well. The resulting mass is laid out in a greased form and baked in the oven over low heat until a golden crust forms. It turns out soft bread, which in Ukraine is called "lemishki" or "salamaty". Before eating, the food is cut into thin slices, sprinkled with grated cheese, cheese or sour cream. Author: Reva M.L.
Water lily (water lily), Nymphaea alba. Recipes for use in traditional medicine and cosmetology
Ethnoscience:
Cosmetology:
Attention! Before use, consult with a specialist!
Water lily (water lily), Nymphaea alba. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing
The water lily (Nymphaea alba) is a beautiful aquatic plant that is often used in landscaping and to create ponds and ponds. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing white water lilies: Cultivation:
Workpiece:
Storage:
Note that some parts of the plant can be poisonous if consumed in large amounts, so make sure they are safe before use and consult your doctor if you have any health concerns.
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